Polo mallet



LQSASE Dec 25 w23 c. C. MEURlssE POLO MALLET File-d Aug. 21. 1922 illllllllllll Patented Dec. 25, i923.

unire staresv CHARLES C. MEURISSE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

POLO MALLET.

Application filed August 21, 1922. Serial No. 583,071.

T 0 all who/mtl? may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES C. MEURIssE, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Polo Mallet; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to polo mallets and in some of ,its general aspects aims to provide effective means for increasing the strength and durability of both the head and the shaft of the mallet, for increasing the resiliency of the mallet head, for suitablyl limiting the whipping action of the handle, and for improving the general appearance of the mallet.

In my copending application No. 570,641 for a patent o-n a polo mallet, as filed on June 24, 1922, I have disclosed a mallet construction in which the whipping of the shaft is limited by constructing this shaft of a relatively flexible main portion (such as a cane or rattan) spliced to an inflexible handle portion of hickory or the like. I have also shown means for reinforcing the shaft adjacent to the mallet head, while both of the features as thus disclosed have proven highly advantageous, I have found Athat the severe shocks to which the mallet is subjected in use willsomctimes overstrain the spliced joint. I have also found that while the said reinforcing of the lower end of'the shank strengthens the shaft at its weakest point, the likelihood of splitting the head of the mallet remains as before.

To overcome these drawbacks, my present invention aims to provide simple and eflec- .tive means forA reinforcing the upper por tion of the shaft, and desirably aims to em ploy means for this purpose which can be used equally welleither for reinforcing the jointed portion of a-two-piece shaft constructed after the manner of my said copending patent application for affording the entire flexure-limiting effect when employed with a single piece shaft. It also aims to provide a reinforcing for the mallet head which will prevent a splitting of the latter, which will afford added resiliencyT for the head so as to permit the use of softer and lighter woods for the main portion of the head when so desired, and which will add decidedly to the appearance of the mallet as a whole. Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a polo mallet embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged and partly sectioned elevation of the upper portion of the shaft of the mallet of Fig. 1 before the usual wrapped handle is aiiixed to the same, showing a two-piece shaft construction.

F ig.'3 is a similarly enlarged view of a corresponding portion of a single piece shaft.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged central and longitudinal section through the head of the mallet and the adjacent portion of the mal- Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are reduced sectional views showing certain steps in the shaping of the sheathing for the mallet head.

Referring first to my novel shaft construction, I accomplish the desired reinforcing of the shaft by tightly encasing both the handle portion of the shaft and the adjacent portion of the shaft for some distance below the handle proper, with a tubular sheath. For this purpose, I desirably employ a tube having some resiliency and prefera ly use a material which is adapted to be forced tightly upon the shaft portions housed by the same, such as one of the socalled pyroXylin plastics which are commonly marketed under the trade names` of celluloid, pyralin, and the like. While tubing made of such material has considerable resiliency and elasticity, such tubing also can be made fairly plastic by heating the same to a temperature which slightly exceeds the boiling point of water and which will not affect either the materials of which a polo mallet shaft is ordinarily m'ade or the spliced joint in a two-p-iece mallet shaft.

For example, Figs. 1 and 2 show a mallet shaft comprising a main portion 1 of a rattan o-f the order of a tapered cane, this being jointed to an upper hickory portion 1 by a `bevel splice and the splice being reinforced by wooden pins 3 extending transversely of the shaft. After the two-piece shaft proper has been thus constructed, I

slip its upper end into a tube 4 of pyralin,

Celluloid or the like, which tube has previously been somewhat softened by immersing core 8, as shown inthe same for a short period of time in steaming hot water. This. tube is desirably of such a length as to house the normal handle portion vand to extend downward along the shaft beyond the said splice. `While the tube is still in its softened or semi-plastic condition, l subject it to the contracting action of a die forced over the same, such as the one shown somewhat diagrammatically in dotted lines at 5 in Fig. 2, thereby forcibly contracting the tube so that it will tightly house the shaft portions encased by it. As soon as the die has thus been passed over the tube, I cool the tube (as for example by subjecting it to cold water), thereby hardening the tube in its contracted form. Then the wrapped and built up handle proper can readily be affixed in the usual manner, as shown for example at 6 in Fig. 1.

With the upper portion of the mallet shaft thus encased, it will be obvious from Figs. 1 and 2 that the tube it reinforces the spliced joint so as to prevent an overstraining of the latter, and also that this reinforcing tube assists in limiting the upward extent of the whipping action to which the shaft is subjected when the mallet is in use. Moreover, since the encasing tube or sheath is in itself made of a resilient and somewhat flexible material, the whipping action of the shaft does not stop sharply at the lower end of this tube but is continued to a more limited extent for a slight distance above this lower end, thereby preventing any tendency towards snapping off the shaft opposite the lower end of the tube.

rllhe same effect of limiting the whipping of the shaft to a substantially predetermined proportion of the shaft is similarly attained with a single-piece shaft construction, such as that shown inl Fig. 3 Where the pyralin or celluloid tube 4 has been tightly forced upon a cane shank 7. ln practice, l have found such a single-piece shank construction to be quite satisfactory when the cane is of a short jointed variety, but for a long jointed cane, l preferably employ a twopiecel shaft construction such as that of To improve the mallet head construction, l also employ a similar material as the casing for the wooden head, as for example after the manner shown in Fig. 4. ln this case, the head consists of a core 8 of any suitable Wood, which core desirab-ly is turned to the usual elongated barrel shape so as to have each end smaller in diameter than the middle of the head, this core being tightly inclosed by a sheath 9 of pyralin, celluloid or the like. To affix the sheath for this purpose, l may start with a cylindrical tube of a bore corresponding substantially to the diameter of either end of the wooden Fig. 5. After softening this tube somewhat by means of hot water,

" incidentally,

Levee-ae l force it upon a mandrel so as to expand its upper portion to a taper corresponding to that of o-ne longitudinal half of the wooden core, while also expanding the other half of the tube to a cylinder corresponding approximately in bore to the largest diameter of the Iwooden core. Having thus stretched the original cylindrical tube into one substantiallyas shown in Fig. 6, l suitably resoften this into the same and then contract the entire tube or sheath about the wooden core by forcing counterpart dies 10 over the same as shown in Fig. 7, after which the sheath is hardened by means of cold water.

With the malletV head sheathed in this tube, slip the wooden core manner, it vwill be obvious that the casing y will prevent a cracking or a splitting of the core or head proper, thereby greatly increasing the effective life of the mallet. Furthermore, the resiliency of such a casing or sheathing is highly desirable in a head of this kind and in view of it l can employ a lighter and softer wood for the core of the head if l so desire. By so doing l can attain the highly desirable object of lightening the mallet as a Whole, which makes a manipulation of the same less tiring to the After the core or head proper has been thus encased, l bore it transversely an affix the shaft in the usual manner, as for example by means of a wedge 11. l may also apply a metal protecting shield-12 to the adjacent portion of the shaft after the manner described in my said copending patent application #570641, and in an event l desirably wrap this lower sha t portion with twine 13 in the usual manner. the material thus employed as the sheathing for the mallet head and for a portion of the shaft can be varied in color as desired, since such materials are readily obtainable in a variety of colors. li am therefore able to suit var ing tastes of the users, and also can provi e mallet portions of strikingly different colors as an aid to identifying the different teams without loading the wood of the mallet head with any paints or the like which might aect its durability.

However, while l have illustrated and described my invention as employed with mallet shafts of certain materials and as having the protective sheathing affixed by .certain operations, l do not wish to be limited to the methods of manufacture thus described, nor to the various details of construction and arrangement here disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be modified in many ways without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

l claim as my invention 1. A polo mallet shaft comprising a shaft having the lower and major portion thereof dat flexible portion an a sti the entire said inflexible portion and the intense i ,rw reletively in ening tum nous resilient and havin un 1n adgiacent upper portion of the resilient yM tion to limit the whipping notion of .the sft when in use, the seid tube bei tightly contracted about the portion of the shaft housed thereby.

2. A shaft for a. polo mollet comprising o resilient lower portion, e substantially in- Hexible upper portion fnstened thereto, and e stiifening tube of pyroxylin plestiohousing the seid inexible portion end the edjecent ort of the resilient shnft portion, the seid tu ports housed t ereby, end r. wrapping over bein tightly contracted about the l the up er end of the seid tube for a'ording o han e for the shaft. y'

3. A shaft for n polo `mollet comprising a lower resilient portion and an upper substentiell inexible ortion spliced thereto, und e, tu of pyroxylin plastic tightly housing the joint between the seid shaft portions.

4. A shaft for e polo mollet Comprising a, lower resilient ortion and an upper substentielly inexlble handle .portion spliced thereto, and o tube tightly housing the said handle ortion end extending downwardly of the s aft beyond the said splice.

Signed et Chicago, Illinois, August 11th,

onnnnns o. Mensen. 

